straightening trailer tongue

[Sysop]

Car and Truck frames have crumple zones which bend and collapse in a fairly predictable and controlled method. Beyond that auto-manufacturers have much more precise processes developed for each 'crumpled' situation than what you'll ever hope to come close to with a bottle jack and chain on something that was never intended to have any bend at all. You might get close, and close may be good enough for you. But honestly with all the effort in making it as straight as you can, then bracing it up to prevent it from happening again; you could just as easily cut out what is bent and install new, heavier if you want to.

 

[tractchores]

Thanks, some good ideas here. I'm going to try to take it apart tomorrow to see what I'm dealing with. It is a square trailer tongue, so the cut and sleave idea may work. I am going to take some measurements and see if I can get a complete tongue for cheap and then bolt that on. The coupler itself broke as well in the impact, so it'd be good to replace that with a new one too (it's welded). I can try to straignten it and if I fail move onto the other fixes. I'm not worried about backing it, it bent vertically, so is still straight in line with the truck and I've actually used it a couple times with the bent tongue.

For kicks I may ask the body shop that's doing the car if they want to take a shot at it. They're doing a huge repair on the tow vehicle, and may be willing to toss it in...

Anyone know a source for trailer tongues? It's a carry-on utility trailer (type they sell at lowes), so should be relatively standard.

 

[Markcuda]

Anyone know a source for trailer tongues?

Find a welding shop, they usually have steel that they will sell you.

 

[aczlan]

Find a welding shop, they usually have steel that they will sell you.

Ayep. If its a 2"x2" 3/16" tube that is under 6' long, it should be available for under $50 (A500 Steel Square Tubing - 2 x 2 x 3/16 - mySteelYard.com has it for $25+ shipping, they also have 2.5x2.5 for $32 A500 Steel Square Tubing - 2-1/2 x 2-1/2 x 3/16 - mySteelYard.com and 3x3 3/16 for $41 A500 Steel Square Tubing - 3 x 3 x 3/16 - mySteelYard.com).
If its not currently 6' long, I might make it 6' long to make it easier to backup, you might just need to go up one wall thickness to account for the added stress on the tongue

Aaron Z

 

[ultrarunner]

I used a floor jack and heat to bring mine back to spec and then I added a gusset by welding to strengthen.

Tongue always had some flex in it since day one... with the gusset the tongue is now rock solid since the fix in 2005.

Box trailer 4 x 6 used to haul one yard loads of gravel and sack concrete...

 

[ray66v]

For kicks I may ask the body shop that's doing the car if they want to take a shot at it. They're doing a huge repair on the tow vehicle, and may be willing to toss it in...

At the very least, if you get them to look at it, you will get a qualified assessment of the damage.

It is not at unusual for the damage to be more severe then the customer thinks.

Anything can be fixed, the question is always, is it worth it?

 

[rd_macgregor]

In some situations a hydraulic wood splitter can be used as a hydraulic press to straighten bent items (you may not be equipped to try this, and positioning everything just right might be a challenge, though).

 

[tractchores]

Got the tongue off and discovered that it's creased, so will be replacing that. It's amazing how flimsy the mount from the tongue to the trailer is, it's bolted onto a piece of angle iron that is welded to either side. That part is bent, but not creased. Looks like I'll be buying a new tongue and trying to straighten the angle iron. The box itself on the trailer isn't bent at all (it's a thicker gauge) and it looks like the axle etc are straight (admittedly I'm just measuring and eyeballing).

 

[ultrarunner]

Might be a good time to fortify the tongue and attachment points.

I was very surprised when mine bent like a wet noodle... adding a few welded gussets at key places made all the difference...

 

[Markcuda]

This has nothing to do with the tongue straightening but, I looked at lots of trailers (be for I bought) with 3 inch channel for the tongue, only 2 or 3 had 4 inch, I went with 4 inch channel.